Strauss-Kahn gets passport back: legal team

25th August 2011, 0 comments

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was given back his passport Thursday, his legal team said, clearing the way for the former IMF head to travel abroad for the first time since his arrest three months ago on sex crime charges.

"I can confirm that the New York Police Department and the Office of the District Attorney returned Mr Strauss-Kahn's passport," Shawn Naunton, from the French politician's legal team, said after a brief visit to his house in Manhattan.

Strauss-Kahn has been a free man since Tuesday when a New York judge agreed to a request by prosecutors to drop all charges against him.

The DA's office said it could no longer pursue the case because while Strauss-Kahn did engage in sex with a Manhattan hotel maid, her repeated lying to investigators made it impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt her allegations of sexual assault.